New York City is killing me with it's summers. I just hide in my room all season, married to the AC.

Since I was 19, I've hardly left NYC/NJ. There was a weekend trip to Chicago four years ago. There was the ill-fated trip to New Mexico this past autumn. Aside from those two excursions and a few drives to Virginia for family reunions, I've been trapped in NYC/NJ.

I live in constant stress and angst with how much I'd wanted nothing more than to spend my life travelling the world, and have instead been chained to home being poor and fighting to find/keep/use health coverage.

So. I'm going to change it. I'm going to try something. I'm going to see if I can escape from May/June to August/September, by sticking my belongings in storage and finding cheap/free places to crash for a while. Places I'd like to see.

I can wrangle about $700 a month to live on, so any rent I might pay would have to be around $300. (or less)

Perhaps you know a place that needs pet sitting, or house sitting, or you have an extra bedroom or couch, or you'd like a companion for a cross country excursion?

Any one with any ideas, offers, connections, advice, whatever, please chime in!

All I've ever been aware of was the Peace Corps, but you need college for that. It was suggested that I find hostels that take chores as payment, but I know nothing about hostels. But moreso, I was looking to data mine the knowledge of you fine folks to find places that are not too hot during the summer months and possible the survive on the cheap without a car.

I've got a friend who uses couch surfing for trips like this. Not used it myself, but he's a pretty seasoned traveller so I suspect it works fairly well.

In terms of the weather, it don't ever get as hot here in the UK as it does out NYC way (unless you're really unlucky and we get one of our occasional freak summers). Northern Europe, heading Scandinavia way would probably be the climate you're after. I guess Canada as well?

Seattle is nice and cool during the summer, and has more to do than Alaska. If your passport is in order, Vancouver or Victoria would probably do you pretty well, too.

I can't remember the name of the site, but didn't Glukkake recommend something to Taphead when he did his NA tour last year that was basically people offering up spare rooms and whatnot for short term rent for cheap? You might try there.

There will always be a room for you in Edinburgh. :) Everything in Edinburgh is walkable/ cyclable/ busable and it very rarely gets properly warm. It's also windy, kinda rainy and has some great coffee places. :)

If you ever make it to Helsinki, I can promise a comfortable -- if not roomy -- stay. Studio apartment and all that, so it's just the one bedroom and a kitchen. If you can handle using a grimy, windowless, torture porn set aesthetic basement storeroom as an art space, there's that.

Helsinki in the summertime: people driven insane with the constant light, parties in parks (ALL THE PARKS, ALL THE TIME), 65-80°F.

The Pacific Northwest really is excellent weather-wise from 4th of July to the beginning of October. Usually only about three weeks of hot weather in August, and lower humidity than you're used to. You might check these sources out: NW Portland Hostel, Hawthorne Hostel, inexpensive wifi enabled bus line connecting Portland, Seattle, Vancouver BC.

If you go to Finland or Edinburgh I'm not that far away, prettysure you can stay here for some weeks. :) It's only one room and a shared kitchen/bathroom space, but it's a big room. Artsy stuff I don't know anything about, but Bergen is a very cultural city and you can walk to pretty much ANYTHING. Summers are a mix of sun and rain, windy, and rarely too hot for me. Like, it's hot in the sun, but when the evening comes you'll probably need to put a cardigan on. Mmm Norway.

Well, in two weeks I go to get some medical testing done, and if things go well, I'll get a diagnosis and some medications to take. If they do indeed pin it down and I get a bit better and don't have to worry about the ongoing wrangling of doctor visits, I'm considering selling off what I can and hightailing it to grey Europe for the summer.

Agreed on Bergen. It's a bloody beautiful city. When it DOES get warm, you're kinda fucked, though. It's incredibly humid, so the heat can get really bad. But that's like a leap year occurrence. :) I should probably check with my wifeyface that she'd be fine with a visitor as well. It's probably fine, which is why I don't tend to check before I offer, but I should check.